Thursday, 15 August 2013

It’s (not) surprising how much study there is to get going
on a coding project like this, especially when you’re learning on the fly! But,
VBScript like Java is something I’ve ignored for too long given my distaste of
all things ‘mainstream’. Which randomly reminds me, go and listen to Liam Frost
if you like clever lyrics and regional accents in music… (not mainstream,
geddit?)

Anyway back to the project. I decided the most important thing
to do, than just wade in coding was to, oh yeh… wade in and try and randomly
lay some code down. After finishing the design to a good-enough standard first,
I thought to crack on and start thinking what the main control file will look
like.

I see that as the way to keep the project simple, thinking about
how I’ve done test automation with Ruby in the past. Have a simple, sequential
script that calls in all the other stuff. All the functions, subs, methods,
classes and whatever else there is to use.

As you’ll see I decided to use Scintilla text editor instead
of some more heavyweight IDE. Visual Web Developer, Visual Studio, Expression
Web and all the others I can’t think of are a bit too involved. That and not
wanting to pay for anything, rules them out.

At the level I wanted, Notepad++ was an option and so was
Notepad 2. But Notepad++ is based on the Scintilla editing component and so is
Notepad 2, so poo to that, straight to source. In truth, straight back to one I
used before and know how to use.

As you’ll see from the video, design complete, first codey
bits down. Thinking about it now I’m going to build out the blank files and then
set up the linking to other files next. Without the ability to call other files
the game in this structure (with a single control file) just won’t work.